Pastor Buff has encouraged the Grace Falls family to participate in the small-group study of the book, “Life On Mission,” by Dustin Willis and Aaron Coe. One of the two home groups at Grace Falls is led by my husband Jim and myself. Our group is comprised of believers who have been saved for decades but have never been intentional about sharing the Gospel and that includes myself.
It was evident that we were each struggling to learn how to become more intentional and we soon realized that the root of our struggle was that we were not “looking” to see where and how God is moving in our midst.
One of the ladies from this group also joins Cissy McNickle and myself as we visit the girls at the local clubs once a month in Atlantic City. On November 18, as we got into the car and prepared to head to the clubs, this woman confessed that she did not like participating in this ministry, but God would not give her peace not to. She began to describe how she felt that she was too old and did not have any way to relate to any of these girls, therefore felt that she was of no use to this ministry team. Cissy encouraged her and reminded her that God calls us to be faithful not perfect.
I was very excited about the gift we were sharing that night. It featured holiday recipes and notes of encouragement that had been submitted by nearly 20 different women who pray for this ministry. I tried to encourage our friend that the gift would serve as an easy source to start a conversation with these girls.
It was after we returned to the car after visiting our second club that our friend said, “Did you happen to notice what happened to me in there?" With concern, Cissy and I turned to make eye contact with her as she began to describe her experience. She told us that while we were busy speaking with others in the dressing room, Irene, the make-up artist asked her to step into the bathroom with her. There in a quiet corner our friend had the privilege to pray with her!
Our discouraged friend that had enough courage to admit to us that she didn't have anything to offer was proved to be wrong. God revealed Himself to her as a reminder that she is useful and that she just needed to open her eyes to see Him!
That may not seem like much to you, but in that moment we felt like Peter must have felt when Jesus called him to walk on the water. We need to be like Peter and get out of the boat when we are told but when we get out we must continue to keep our eyes on Jesus if we are going to live life on mission.
Keep us in your prayers as we go back to the clubs at 7:30 p.m. on December 17th.
